The Gingerbread Lady

This lesser-known Neil Simon play about a middle-aged recovering alcoholic and her friends is an acquired taste, perfect for anyone keen on melodrama, daft caricatures, and feeble witticisms. The cast made an admirable go of making thinly drawn characters believable however, with Emma Sayers’ sad, moving speech as Toby’s fallen beauty queen the highlight of the evening. Other emotional beats didn’t hit the mark though, with about five bizarre u-turns (I love you! I hate you!) for each character straining both plausibility and one’s patience. If the play set out to make the audience understand what it’s like to be in the company of an irritating and selfish drunk (with no redeeming qualities) for over two hours, then it succeeded.

Brighton Little Theatre, 13 August 2013

Rating: